With inputs to growing becoming more expensive, finding ways to become more efficient is at the front of every growers mind. By managing and improving soil health, water can be retained in the soil, fertiliser inputs decrease and yields can increase.
This short video highlights how how soil health is prioritised on a dryland sugar cane farm.
A new analysis reveals the State Government risks an economic hit to Queensland of $1.3 billion over ten years with its misguided push to cut nitrogen applications on sugarcane crops by up to 30% below industry best practice levels.
“We are doing all we can to reduce the risk to Great Barrier Reef water quality from runoff from our farms, including adopting a scientifically-based industry program, SIX EASY STEPS (6ES), to analyse soil and crop needs and determine optimal fertiliser rates for productivity,” CANEGROWERS Chairman and Mackay cane grower Paul Schembri said.
“We are alarmed by the zealous campaign within government agencies and programs to drive nitrogen use below these guidelines without recognising the huge economic risk to growers and the regional economies that rely on them.
“This is happening without any direct evidence that dissolved nitrogen from farms is having any effect on corals in inshore areas which see catchment flows.”
CANEGROWERS has used a large dataset derived from field trials of crop fertiliser responses to assess what would happen at different rates of nitrogen application. The economic impact was then analysed.
“The impact of a 30% reduction on the 6ES nitrogen rate was significant and dire for cane farms,” Mr Schembri said.
“The ramped-up reef regulations implemented last year are based on an intent to push growers to this level.
“These regulations are based on the lie that such a cut would not hurt the industry – our analysis shows this is clearly false.
“These 2019 reef regulations must be repealed.”
The CANEGROWERS analysis showed a 30% reduction in nitrogen use would lead to:
The results of the study are published in the report Nitrogen Management in the Queensland Sugarcane Industry – The economic risks of policies that prescribe nitrogen rates below industry guidelines which assessed the economic impact across the Queensland economy.
“It is time to put the brakes on this regulatory juggernaut and the false assumptions on which it is based,” Mr Schembri said.
“This same misguided approach is behind reef targets, programs and report cards that are rolled out by both the Queensland and Federal governments. No wonder growers get frustrated!
“This anti-industry dogma is posing a real risk to the livelihoods of the thousands of people who work in the sugarcane industry and to the Queensland state economy.
“The industry cannot survive if this unfounded push to reduce nitrogen use below optimal levels continues.
“Even driving catchment water quality back to pre-development levels, with everyone going broke in the process, would have a limited impact on the Great Barrier Reef as a whole because inshore areas account for 5% or less of the coral reef area.”
The sugarcane industry will continue to do its bit for water quality through testing and adopting cost-effective ways of improving the efficiency of fertiliser use.
“As sugarcane growers we have been cooperating with and involved in Reef water quality efforts for 20 years,” Mr Schembri said.
“CANEGROWERS is now leading on-farm trials of new fertiliser formulations that could further reduce losses and through our Smartcane BMP (best management practice) program, growers are showing they have improved their methods and timing of fertiliser application.
“The importance of nitrogen in water for coral on the Reef has been greatly exaggerated by governments.
“Scientists tell us that the main stressors on the Reef are climate change and extreme weather events – this is where governments need to be focussing their attention.
“Our industry is being sacrificed for political expediency, to make it look like action is being taken to improve the prospects for the Reef’s future.”
Next week, when the Senate inquiry into the evidence base behind the reef regulations holds its hearings in Brisbane, CANEGROWERS will be urging it to recommend a thorough review of the way scientific research on Great Barrier Reef water quality is managed, scrutinised and used to justify government policies.
Ask cane grower Robert Bonassi how he’s slashed fertiliser rates without affecting yield and he has two words – soil health.
The third-generation farmer is focused on fallow crops, mill by-products and soil tests in his transition to cane that is less reliant on artificial fertilisers, and he says the journey has been both challenging and rewarding.
Mr Bonassi is one of 39 Wet Tropics growers to take advantage of the Australian Government’s Reef Trust IV tender program, delivered through the Wet Tropics Sugar Industry Partnership. The program is helping to finance changes reducing fertiliser use on these farms, and potentially other farms in the future.
The Ingham grower cut his fertiliser rates by up to 20 per cent over four years – moving from 160kg of nitrogen per hectare to 120 – 130kg for plant cane and 145kg for ratoons.
He said the take-home message was simple – you need to maintain healthy soils.
“I’ve learned you can’t drop the ball – you’ve got to keep the soil healthy when you’re reducing nitrogen and phosphorous,’’ he said.
“We’d always taken soil samples but now we target every block we fallow on a yearly basis.”
The Bonassi family grows cane on 180 hectares over four parcels of land, with 25 of those hectares under fallow crops at any given time. They moved to mounded rows and zonal tillage to solve waterlogging issues in the wet season, manufactured a zonal ripper and mounder, and bought a bean planter last year.
They are also sold on mill mud and mill ash for its nutrient and soil conditioner properties.
“We apply sub-surface mill mud and ash in the fallows. Slowly, slowly it is building our soils up and helping us with reducing our fertilisers,” Robert said.
“Living 35km from the mill we needed to think about ways to reduce costs, so we get it bulk-delivered and we bought our own spreader. Now we can control the rate. We spread zonally at the end of every year, using about 80 tonnes to a hectare. We can target where we put it depending on the state of the ground.
“Within five years we’ll have gone across the whole farm with 80 to 100 tonnes per hectare of mud and ash and we should start seeing results. Then we’ll look at halving that and see if we can still meet the nitrogen levels.”
He said the regular soil tests also helped to maintain calcium and magnesium levels, with lime applied when needed.
“At this stage we’re not saving money but our yield hasn’t been affected and overall it feels like we are getting there,’’ he said.
“This is something I’ve always wanted to do – get the soils back up.”
His farm is 6km from the ocean “as the crow flies”. Two of the parcels of land have three creeks running through them and one shares a boundary with national park land.
The Bonassis constructed silt ponds a decade or so ago with the help of another Federal Government Reef grant and most of their drains run into them. They have spoon and grassed drains to slow the flow of water off the paddock.
“It’s all about getting a good balance – good returns on the soil while minimising run-off to the very best of our ability,’’ he said.
“I always remember visiting an older farmer on a trip in my late 20s as part of a Young Farmers group. That was more than 25 years ago and he had already moved to 1.8m rows. He told us if you’re making changes, give it 110 per cent. That’s what I do now. What worked well last year doesn’t always work well this year, so it keeps you on your toes.”
Wet Tropics Sugar Industry Partnership extension officer Jarrod Sartor said incremental change was the way forward for growers.
“An important message when reducing fertiliser is not to drop it by too much too quickly or without fixing other constraints, or you risk losing productivity,’’ he said. “By regular soil testing, ameliorating with mill by-products and lime and using legumes as a break crop, you can constantly improve the soil to better use the fertiliser being placed.”
AN Innisfail sugar cane farmer has reduced his fertiliser use by 20 per cent, without affecting yield.
Third-generation cane farmer Sam Spina, who farms alongside brother Michael, said implementing simple changes had both increased profitability, while providing beneficial environmental outcomes.
Mr Spina started making changes two years ago, planting bean fallow crops and varying fertiliser application rates across his paddocks.
The results have been pleasing, with the brothers reducing fertiliser use from 160kg per hectare to 120kg per hectare – a reduction of 20 per cent.
Mr Spina said he had started planting bean fallow crops two years ago with the help of a new tractor partly financed through the Reef Trust IV program.
He said as a small farm, they would not have been able to do so without the program delivered by the Wet Tropics Sugar Industry Partnership.
“As a small farm we couldn’t have afforded it otherwise,” he said. “We re-plant cane on
four to five hectares and plant beans on the same number of hectares each season to
increase the nitrogen in our soil in a more natural way.”
He then accessed an all-of-farm nutrient management program, also developed by WTSIP officers last year as part of a free service to growers.
“We had a really good look at the soil tests and matched the fertiliser blend to those tests,” Mr Spina said.
“We changed fertiliser and reduced it, and experienced no productivity losses.
“We’re still up around 90 tonnes (of cane) per hectare, depending on the weather and the season.
“We saw in the soil tests that some paddocks needed more super phosphate in the ratoons so we also changed that.
“Our fertiliser box is on GPS now so we can automatically adjust the rate as we go.”
The family’s farm is about 1.5km from the Johnstone River and 8km from the ocean, and Mr Spina said they had also laser levelled their land and reshaped drains to help improve water quality.
“Laser levelling helps to produce a more even crop and it’s also helping with water quality,” he said.
“With the grassed headlands and drains as well, when the water runs off the paddock it moves slowly and goes into the spoon drains first so any sediment can settle.”
Mr Spina said changes that began as cost-saving initiatives had become much more as growers became more environmentally aware.
“Over the years cane growers have become a lot more aware environmentally – we’re grassing our headlands, trash-blanketing, applying fertiliser underground, getting water samples.
“If there is fertiliser coming off our paddocks, we want to know about it so we can fix it.”
The Spinas are one of 39 Wet Tropics growers to receive tenders to reduce fertiliser use on their farms.
WTSIP chair Joe Marano said one the main benefits of the system was that growers could choose the practice changes they believed would be most effective on their farm.
“They’ve been trialling a range of different ways to reduce nitrogen – from using controlled-release fertilisers or applying mill mud to growing legumes as a source of nitrogen and buying specialised equipment,” Mr Marano said.
“These growers have been able to reduce their use of nitrogen fertiliser without affecting their yields – a good result for profitability and for water quality.”